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Monday, October 26, 2009

This is a meal I have been making for over a decade. Back when we were in married student housing at BYU, a neighbor of mine made these. She didn't really have a recipe and over the years I have made these probably twenty different ways. One thing I have learned...the more veggies, the better!

I will try to give you an approximate recipe of what I did. (Though I literally just throw together whatever I have, but here we go...)

This is what I used to make the calzones. Mozzarella cheese really is wonderful for these, but it just hasn't gone on a great sale lately, so I don't have any! ; )

2 small cartons of cottage cheese (one large would also be fine...one of my cartons had been opened by "Casper" and was only 2/3 full.
2 cups shredded cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 can olives
1/2 bell pepper
2 cups spinach
4-5 mushrooms
I also use garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper...but they didn't make it in the picture.

(For some reason, I have a LOT of photos for this recipe...but still only about a third of what the Pioneer Woman takes for each recipe... ; )

I just chopped up all the vegetables. Everyone in my family likes spinach and olives, so I went ahead and mixed those two into the cheese mixture. Then I sauteed the mushrooms and peppers to add into a few of the calzones for the adults.

This is the cottage cheese, cheddar (or mozzarella), parmesan, olives, and spinach. Then I just sprinkle on some garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

I was in a hurry when I was making these, so I opted to use my pizza crust recipe instead of my regular bread recipe.
Take a small hunk of dough and roll it out into an oval-ish shape. Put about 1/2 cup of cheese mixture into center of dough.

Then I did this for me and my husband:

Then, just fold the dough over the filling and roll the edge to close. Try to seal them fairly well all around the edge...otherwise a lot ends up leaking out while they bake.

This is how many I got using the amounts I listed above and a double recipe of my pizza dough.
There were 3 large ones and 6 medium ones. I always sprinkle corn meal on my pans (instead of greasing) when I make bread, rolls, etc.

Bake at 350* for approximately 25-30 minutes until they are golden brown.

Serve with warm spaghetti sauce over the top ( I always use Ragu...the chunkier the better) and you can also garnish with fresh parmesan. My husband took this last photo for me (I was leaving to book club!) and he ALWAYS garnishes with a sprig of his fresh parsley out of the garden.

Try these out and let me know how you like them. They are super easy and have always been so delicious...no matter what I throw into them!

Mix together everything but the sauce and water. Stuff into cooked jumbo shells. Combine sauce and water. Cover bottom of 9X13 pan with a layer of sauce (about 1/2 cup) and place filled shells in pan. (I ended up having to place some on top of the first layer.)

Cover with remaining sauce and top with more parmesan, if desired. Cover and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, removing foil for the last 5-8 minutes.
This is not a great picture, but I had company waiting to eat... ; )
It was really yummy...but I wish that I had put chopped spinach and sauteed mushrooms in the cheese mix. I think that would have added alot. I will definitely do that next time!

Monday, October 12, 2009

This is another recipe that I basically just throw together...especially tonight since I had a piano recital at my house (for FHE) and we sat down to dinner 30 minutes before everyone was to arrive!

I love to make these as individual quiches. I have these small pie pans that I got years ago that the kids think are so fun. I think I got them at Walmart...but I can't say that I've seen them recently. I LOVE to make individual apple pies in them...they are so cute.

Prepare pie crust. (Tip for a flaky pie crust from Martha Stewart: reduce your shortening by two tablespoons and add 3-4 T of sliced COLD butter. Try it...it works!) Sprinkle onion, spinach and cheese in bottom of crust. Beat eggs, milk, and seasonings together. Pour into crust.
Here are the official baking instructions in my recipe book: Bake uncovered at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300. Bake until center in cooked, about 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.
I normally just throw it in there at about 375. The large pie pan takes 50-60 minutes and that's why I love my small ones because they are done in about 30 minutes. I've even baked these in muffin tins before and those took 18-20 minutes. Just cook it until a knife comes out clean from the center.

Serve with salsa and enjoy! Tonight we ate these with some Mexican Cornbread that my aunt had made and shared with us. Yum!

Monday, October 5, 2009

I've been wanting to try a vegetarian lasagna for some time now. I found this one online and thought it sounded pretty good. I've made one before with zucchini instead of the noodles and that went over like a ton of bricks! ; )

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of this one. It was very good and had a nice mixture of vegetables and cheeses. I meant to put in mushrooms (because we both love them so much), but I totally forgot to throw them in the saute.

This was a VERY hard recipe to follow...pretty confusing, actually, so I'm going to try to simplify a little bit!

In small saucepan, whip flour and milk together to make white sauce (you can start with the traditional butter and flour if you'd like). Remove from heat when thick and add parmesan, pepper and spinach. Set aside.

So now you have 3 mixtures: the veggies, the spinach sauce, and the cheeses.

Start with a little spinach sauce on the bottom of your 9X13 pan then layer like this:
3 noodles
1/3 spinach sauce
1/3 veggies
1/4 cheese mixture
(I ended up just mixing these all around and spreading them evenly over the noodles...they certainly don't stay in distinct layers!)

Repeat that order 2 more times.

Top with remaining 3 noodles
Spread remaining 1/4 cheese sauce over the top layer of noodles. If it seems like there won't be enough, just add a little more cottage cheese and some milk to make it go farther.

Bake at 375* for 30-35 minutes. This is what mine looked like when it came out:

And this is how pretty and yummy it looked when I served it up:
(Well, I guess it only looks yummy if you love vegetables...so I'm sure at least one of my kids wouldn't describe it as yummy looking ; )

You can see mine only had 3 layers of noodles and it was not thick enough, so I've changed the recipe a little bit and made it have more layers.